Hands Free Bluetooth poor sound quality

I've spoken with both Ray and Henry - yes they have heard about this issue - and it seems the official response is to act ignorant. I disabled my BT - but since I just did the Z120 update/BT update(s), I'll try it again.

From talking with others, changing mics (Garmin) really doesn't do a lot.

Ray said the most important thing is to locate the mic at the top left of the windshield - next to the visor. As I need to pull apart my dash/A pillar etc, I've put that off until I'm in there for something else...

I've done all the updates to my Z110BT, including the $160 map updates, plus the latest 2.03 firmware, moved the mic from the rear view mirror to the far left next to the visor and still the sound quality is poor. Mine sounds a bit muffled instead of clear. Sometimes it sounds as if the words run together. Has there been any other fix or remedy? Oh and I also tried wrapping tape around the end of the mic as well, no go....

I've done all the updates to my Z110BT, including the $160 map updates, plus the latest 2.03 firmware, moved the mic from the rear view mirror to the far left next to the visor and still the sound quality is poor. Mine sounds a bit muffled instead of clear. Sometimes it sounds as if the words run together. Has there been any other fix or remedy? Oh and I also tried wrapping tape around the end of the mic as well, no go....

I think you have again confirmed an issue (well - really a huge monstrous design problem) with the the Z.

I'm now toying with the idea to move to a random Chinese thing (had one before - but now they have in-car Internet).

Just keep calling and complaining...

I can't imagine a company having a flagship device with *poor* - nay *awful* BT in-call performance.

I'm guessing due to the lack of a fix, they are marketing this at people who don't care about BT mic performance - meaning the ability to make a professional call ( not to your friends - I mean for conference calls, customer calls, or even important personal calls). Buy it, and don't count on anything close to norm from a sound quality.

Just search the forum. The Z110 and Z120 have very very poor BT.

Yes - it works great for sound, and the Z120 update is easier to navigate, but if you are buying this, know the limitation (which IMHO is HUGE if you use this during business hours - or even for most personal calls).

EDIT: Just to clarify, The BT streaming (music) works great. The only big major real issue is with phone calls - if calls are important - and you can't use a personal ear mic (BT from phone, or wired) - buy the Ken/JVC/Alp/random China things of the world...

Is it possible to use a bluetooth headset which connects to the Z110 and bypass the cheap wired mic from Pioneer?

From what I've read the Parrot mics are not changing the problem which leads me to believe its an internal software or electronics issue, not the mic.

This is strange since we replaced an F900 Pioneer which had GOOD BT performance but the unit itself was plauged with being slow, long lag times etc. So now the Z110 does have faster response times and start up but the reverse it the problem, the BT sucks. In fact I've found it works just a tad better when the mic is furthest from the driver.

Is it possible to use a bluetooth headset which connects to the Z110 and bypass the cheap wired mic from Pioneer?

If you wanted to do that, then why not just connect your BT headset directly to the phone? or am I missing something in the logic here since that pretty much defeats the purpose of integrated BT

From what I've read the Parrot mics are not changing the problem which leads me to believe its an internal software or electronics issue, not the mic.

This is strange since we replaced an F900 Pioneer which had GOOD BT performance but the unit itself was plauged with being slow, long lag times etc. So now the Z110 does have faster response times and start up but the reverse it the problem, the BT sucks. In fact I've found it works just a tad better when the mic is furthest from the driver.

The F series is completely different hardware AND software, you really can't compare the products, they have different pros and cons.

I have owned AVIC units for many years. Had the N1 then the N3 and now the 110.

With all of them I could never grasp why they would release their products with so many fundamental flaws. Still, despite the aggravations I tolerated the N1 & N3 deficiencies since the good outweighed the bad relative to the competitive alternatives.

However, the 110 was a step backwards in so many ways. How can a voice message such as "What was it?" be acceptable in a consumer product? Moving from the N3 to the 110 meant that I lost a large number of voice commands and have to go through an insane number of manual menu selections for basic functions while driving!

But the most unacceptable aspect it the terrible BT performance. I have been using handsfree devices in my vehicles for 10 years; and BT from the beginning of the technology. The 110 is by far the worst. It's actually embarrassing to try and conduct business calls. Hell, people tell me that the BT sound quality is far better on my loud motorcycle than it is in my quiet car. It's not mic placement, it's not tape to cover holes, it's not AC vents, it's not do this before you do that, it's poor engineering!

I'm now looking for a Pioneer alternative. I don't care how much it costs. I need something that works!

If you answer the phone call with the S3 you will only hear the person through the S3 right?

I follow what your doing though. Pretty cool. Basically your pairing your iphone with two BT devices, the Pioneer and the S3. Either of which can take over the call. If you choose to take the call with the Pioneer you'll get the the person's voice over your vehicle speakers but yours will be over the Mic which is the issue in the first place. If you choose the S3. Will the volume on your music stay muted while you talk and then resume to normal volume when you end the call like the Pioneer does or I suspect it probably wont. The moment you take the call over the S3 your loud music will resume. You will manually need to mute it and the conversation will be over the small s3 speaker.